Geforce 6150/nVidia 430 motherboards: PCI slot limitations?

[mikepaul]

The video specs on Geforce 6150/nVidia 430 motherboards look good enough to me, but all I can find is micro-ATX with 2 PCI slots. I want at least one PCI-E, but at least 3 PCI for my existing cards is really important.

Is there a chipset limitation leading to small boards and few slots, or is it that the perceived market is MMPC stuff where it has to be small to fit next to the DVD player in the den?

If it's not limited somehow, does anyone know if a full ATX board with 3 (or so) of each kind of slot is coming soon?

And if I'd have to settle, what other chipset provides built-in HDTV-level-spec video?

Thanks...

 

[Newf]

This is not a PCI slot limitation, it's a marketing niche issue.

All 61xx/4xx boards are micro-ATX because the market for these integrated boards is low$, value oriented and often SFF. Due to the passive (quiet) cooling and decent audio, they are great for media-center use.

I just bought one of these (Asus A8N-VM CSM) and I also wish they were available in ATX.

 

[Newf]

As of today there are no ATX boards out there. Since the chipsets are very new, maybe in the next few months someone will bring out a full size board. They are selling well in mATX form now. That's always a harbinger for future expansion (sequels?).

 

[hella-d]

Id Reccomend The Chaintech Zenith VE Its An EXCELLENT Board With The Nforce4 Ultra Chipset And Has All The Bells An Wistles (Or However You Spell It, LOL) And Can Be Had For Less Than $70.00 Thats Whats In My Machine (Just Look At The Specs Below)

 

[Newf]

Your NF4 board is fine but not comparable to 6150/430 chipset boards.

 

[hella-d]

Just Curious As To Why?

 

[Newf]

NF4 boards (in general) offer the fastest chipset speeds and are usually combined with gamer quality video cards. They are for speed, and systems built with them will cost more than what a person buying a board with integrated graphics usually need. Finally there are now both ATI and NVidia integrated alternatives to the Intel G series boards. I for one do not need 7800GT/GTX capability for what I do. I also don't want an Intel CPU cause they run too damn hot. So for me the 6150/430 boards work great and offer free 6000 level video. Different needs, different markets, different motherboards.

 

[hella-d]

Well He Could Go With My Board And Just Buy A Cheap 6200 Or Something Of That Manner

 

[Crashman]

First of all, ignore the lies about the 6150 having far better graphics performance than the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 graphics core. It's simply not the case, I've tested it.

Then consider the ATI solution, as there are a few, very few, full ATX boards using ATI's integrated graphics core.

 

[mikepaul]

OK, I'll look into some others. I have time.

The on-board HDTV-level specs just seem nice due to budget constraints.

Thanks...

 

[Newf]

The reviews I've read all show the ATI and Nvidia graphics performance as roughly equivalent. I have never seen a full ATX version of either. Got a model # or even just a brand handy for an ATX board?

 

[Crashman]

Yes, I think Sapphire has a full-ATX board with integrated ATI graphics. I know for certain their parent company does. ECS might too, they have the Intel version so why not the AMD version?

These boards don't interest me much, so I don't remember model numbers.

Graphics wise, nVidia is fine on computer standards, but their S-Video sucks. As for performance otherwise, it's roughly the same level as the ATI solution.

 

[Newf]

Thanks Crashman.
Indeed PC Partners (Sapphire) does have an ATX Radeon Xpress 200 board:
Model: RS480AK9-A58S
http://www.pcpartner.com/products/ati/m-a58S.htm